Charging a home remodel or an unexpected necessity to a 0% APR card means interest won’t kick in for months (sometimes more than a year), so you’ll have time to slowly pay down the loan. But this strategy works only if you have a plan to pay off the debt before the 0% APR period runs out.

After analyzing the fine print of 52 credit cards with no annual fees and a 0% APR offer of at least six months, we narrowed the field down to our two favorite options, neither of which charges interest for at least 15 months.

The Chase Freedom Unlimited® delivers value during the 15-month 0% intro APR period, and long after the intro period ends.

You don’t have as long to repay your debt interest-free as with our other pick (18 billing cycles with the BankAmericard).

But if you’re sure you can quickly repay your debt, you’re rewarded with a card that throws in a modest but not insubstantial spending bonus on top of unlimited cash-back rewards. You may want to keep the Freedom Unlimited in your wallet even after your promo period ends, rather than socking it away in a drawer or cutting it up.

If you want a longer 0% APR period: BankAmericard Credit Card

This card’s only real benefit is its long promo period; you won’t want to use it often after you've finished paying off your initial expense. But if an emergency expense comes up and you want to make the smallest possible monthly repayments, or you need as much time as possible to pay it off without incurring interest, the BankAmericard Credit Card could be a lifesaver.

With an intro 18-month 0% APR on purchases, this card offers one of the longest amounts of time to pay off your card interest-free of any of the cards we analyzed.

If you want a 0% APR card with solid gas and grocery rewards: Bank of America Cash Rewards Credit Card

The Bank of America Cash Rewards Credit Card has staying power in a wallet long after the 15-billing cycle intro APR period ends. Considering the card’s high cash-back rewards potential (particularly for gas rewards), you may want to keep it around.

Who this guide is for

A 0% APR card can be a useful tool if you’re paying off unexpected bills, such as for home repairs or a new car transmission. 31% of people said they would resort to using a credit card for a large, unexpected expense, according to an online survey of 1,891 employed workers conducted in March 2019 by human resources company Ceridian.

Or maybe you have the money but you’d rather maintain your savings at their current level.

To determine our picks, we broke our cards down into two groups: cards for people who want the longest possible 0% APR period to pay their purchase off, and cards for people who want value from the card even after the 0% offer ends (and who want to earn some rewards while they’re at it). Read more in our full methodology.

In addition, you should take advantage of a 0% APR card only if:

You have a credit score that’s at least good (a FICO score of 700-plus [PDF]). These cards can be tough to get approved for.

You can make (and stick to) a budget. Even if you need more time than the offer period to pay off your debt, you want to have a plan in place and be aware of how much interest you’ll end up paying.

You can pay off your purchase in full before the intro period ends, if you want to avoid paying interest.

Who this guide isn’t for

Keep in mind that 0% interest for a year isn’t an excuse to buy things you can’t pay off. You should avoid these cards if:

You might be tempted to overspend and live beyond your means.

You want to pay down existing credit card debt for a period of 0% APR. In this case, what you’re looking for is a balance-transfer card (check out our picks of the best balance-transfer cards for more information).

You don’t have good or excellent credit. Cards with benefits such as an extended interest-free period are typically reserved for folks with great credit and a credit report free of serious negative marks (such as a bankruptcy, a collections account, or a late payment).

Why you should trust us

A plethora of sites review credit cards and other financial products, and many of those sites put their own financial interests first. We don’t do that. We exist to recommend the best products to help you live a better life.

In some cases, if you click on a card in one of our guides and you’re approved for the offer, we’ll make money—but those commissions never influence our reporting, our writers, or our editors. And we’ll never make a penny from some of our top picks (for example, the Uber Visa Card, our pick for the best dining rewards card) because we independently found them to be the best regardless of any business relationships. Like all of Wirecutter, we maintain editorial independence from our business operations.

You may not know this, but many sites prominently feature only those credit cards that pay them a commission. We don’t. Our editorial team analyzes most major cards or products (and some not-so-major ones) in a category. (We researched more than 100 cards for our guide to the best balance-transfer cards.)

When you go to a competitor’s site, you’ll often see a never-ending scroll of “best picks.” Many of these publishers charge the banks more money to get their offers higher on the page. Banks have no influence on where we place a card in our guides. You won’t find a “Best Metal Card” in any of our guides, or any such thing that doesn’t matter to you.

Sometimes, banks allow sites to make money off only one version of a card’s offer. For instance, a bank may pay sites a commission only if they highlight a 12-month balance-transfer offer, while offering 15 months directly on its own website. The offers we review and recommend are the best in class, given our research and expertise, whether we get paid or not.

We don’t believe these principles are revolutionary, but they are necessary for us to be able to say that a particular credit card is “the best.”

Product details have been collected independently by Wirecutter and are accurate as of 8/29/2019. Learn More.

Annual Fee

$0

Regular APR

16.99% - 25.74% variable

Intro Bonus

$200

Recommended Credit

Good to excellent

What makes this card great

The Chase Freedom Unlimited offers a 15-month intro APR period, which is at the longer end of the cards we analyzed. This gives you ample time to pay off a big purchase.

But unlike some cards with lengthy promotional periods, the Freedom Unlimited is no throwaway card: It charges no annual fee and has a decent rewards rate (unlimited 1.5 points on all purchases), making this a card you may want to keep in your wallet even after the 0% intro period expires.

Whereas some other cards will revoke your promo offer if you miss even one payment—forcing you to either pay off your balance immediately, do a balance transfer, or get hit with a high APR—you don’t need to worry about that with the Freedom Unlimited.

As with our other pick, from Bank of America, with this card Chase won’t revoke your promotional rate due to one missed payment, and you won’t incur a penalty APR (an interest rate, often around a hefty 30%, imposed on people whose bills are more than 60 days late). Of course, a late payment can have a serious negative effect on your credit—plus, Chase will require you to pay a late fee.

Also, you can’t just keep missing payments with no consequence; a spokesperson for Chase told us that continued missed payments may result in your account being closed and sold to a collection agency. This action can have a significant negative impact on your credit scores.

A big reason we like this card is the ease of making payments. Since missing a payment dings you with late fees, and repeated missed payments could cause you to lose your 0% offer, you don’t want to mess up.

Many people we talked to said autopay was an important feature because it helped keep them on track to pay off their balance by the end of the intro period. We like that in addition to offering autopay, Chase puts bold lettering on its main payments page to make it obvious when you have autopay set up.

You can also ask Chase to send you custom account notifications, such as a reminder a couple of days in advance of your bill due date, through text, email, or a push notification to Android or Apple devices.

We set an alert to email us three days in advance of our bill due date.

Plus, you'll get $200 after you spend $500 in purchases in your first three months from account opening. Chase awards the cash back as points, which you can easily redeem in the form of a statement credit or a direct deposit to your bank account.

A great cash-back card can earn you money back for purchases you’re making anyway. 2% is the gold standard, but many cards offer even more.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

If you don’t pay your debt in full by the time the intro APR offer expires, Chase could hit you with hefty interest fees. The card’s APR is 16.99% – 25.74%, so any interest you accumulate will start to put a dent in the value of this card.

Say you charge $4,000 to your card within your first three months of becoming a cardholder. You would earn $60 cash back in rewards.

If you make regular monthly payments of $150 for 15 months, you’ll have a $1,750 balance at the end of the intro period. If you then continue to make $150 monthly payments at an assumed average regular purchase APR of 21.37%, according to Bankrate’s credit card calculator, you’ll pay $229 in interest—which negates the value of the rewards you earned.

Also, this card has a 3% foreign-transaction fee, so it's an inferior travel companion.

Annual Fee

Regular APR

Intro Bonus

Recommended Credit

The BankAmericard Credit Card has one big thing to offer: 18 billing cycles for you to pay down your debt interest-free. It’s one of the longest periods of any card we reviewed.

We think the BankAmericard is a good fit if you want lower monthly payments or more time overall to repay your debt.

So how much more valuable is Bank of America’s 18-billing-cycle promo offer compared with a 15-month offer (as our other two picks have)? Consider the types (and amounts) of expenses that you may put on one of these cards.

The average cost to install a tankless water heater is $1,900, according to HomeAdvisor. And the average cost of a 12-night international trip per couple is $6,502, according to ValuePenguin’s analysis of 2013 Consumer Expenditure Survey data.

Here’s what your monthly payments would look like if you paid off each of those purchases in full by the end of the promo period on each of our picks:

15 months or billing cycles

18 months or billing cycles

$1,900 water heater

$126.66

$105.56

$6,502 international trip

$433.47

$361.22

For less-costly purchases, the monthly-payment difference may not add up to much. But for bigger purchases, you may welcome the breathing room on your monthly payments that the extra three billing cycles affords you.

We love the Bank of America mobile app and online-banking website. The app can help you make payments on time and keep tabs on your spending through customizable alerts. Setting a reminder via the app could be a good way to make sure you don’t miss payments, which is especially important if you use this card for one big purchase but then sock it away in your drawer.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

Ideally you’ll pay off your debt within the intro interest-free period—but once that intro APR period ends, the card doesn’t deliver much value. If you close the card, that can hurt your credit but gives you one less credit card to manage.

If you keep it open, you should make at least a small monthly charge on it, such as to pay a Spotify or Netflix membership fee, to keep the card active. Banks can close your card after a prolonged period of inactivity, so a small monthly payment can help you avoid this problem.

This card charges a 3% foreign-transaction fee, so we don’t recommend that you bring it on a foreign trip—even if you use the card to finance that vacation.

Bank of America doesn’t offer any rewards or any kind of spending bonus on this card. If you’re confident you can pay off your balance in full in 15 billing cycles, you might as well get some cash back for your purchases through a rewards card, such as our other pick, the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

If you already (or want to) invest with Bank of America

This card has the potential to be the highest-earning gas rewards credit card we reviewed (and you can earn high cash back in some other worthy categories too). But it’s best for existing Bank of America customers with some serious savings.

What we love

There just aren’t many credit cards that offer respectable goodies at the pump.

BofA’s Preferred Rewards program can accelerate your cash-back earnings (the highest you can earn is 5.25%) if you have sufficient savings in an eligible account; tiers range from $20,000 to $100,000

Annual Fee

Regular APR

Intro Bonus

Recommended Credit

What makes this card great

The Bank of America Cash Rewards Credit Card’s introductory offer of a 0% APR on purchases for your first 15 billing cycles puts it on a par with the Chase Freedom Unlimited.

But if you’re looking for long-term rewards, this card has more going for it.

You earn 3% back on one category of your choice (gas, online shopping, dining, travel, drugstores, or home improvement/furnishings), plus 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, on the first $2,500 in combined purchases in the 3% and 2% categories each quarter, after which you earn 1%.

That 3% bonus category could align well with a big purchase like a new couch, or Christmas gifts you buy online.

Say you get a 0% APR card to pay off a new dishwasher over 15 billing cycles. You charge the dishwasher to the card, but let’s assume you also use the card for your groceries and gas.

For our calculations, we assume that you bought Wirecutter’s top pick, the Bosch 300 Series SHEM63W55N dishwasher, at Home Depot, which qualifies as one of Bank of America’s home improvement merchants, for $764 (the price it had at the time of this guide’s publication). We also assume that you spend $4,500 a year on groceries and $2,000 on gas. Here’s how much you can expect to earn:

Chase Freedom Unlimited

Bank of America Cash Rewards Credit Card

One-year return

$308.96

$362.92

Five-year return

$698.96

$962.92

Our calculations for the Bank of America Cash Rewards credit card assume you select “home improvement” as your bonus category in your first quarter of ownership and switch it to gas for the remaining three. The data here also accounts for intro offers on both cards, and we assume you pay off all purchases within 12 billing cycles (as opposed to using the entire 15 billing cycles) to get the full rewards value in year one.

Keep in mind that the Freedom Unlimited could net you more rewards depending on how much you spend across the board—the least you can earn for your credit card spending on the Cash Rewards card is 1%, while on the Freedom Unlimited it’s 1.5%. And if you have a Chase Sapphire card, your points could be potentially worth more if you transfer them.

You can also change the 3% bonus category each quarter, so although you may set it to home improvement before your jaunt to Home Depot, you could switch it to another category (we recommend gas, assuming you drive) for the rest of the year.

The card has another introductory offer beyond just the 0% APR period, and this one could put cash in your pocket. If you spend at least $1,000 in purchases in the first 90 days of your account opening, you get an additional $200 cash bonus.

Bank of America has features in place to help ensure that you pay your bills on time, including a highly customizable autopay option. You can choose from options including paying the minimum amount due, your account balance, or a custom amount, and you can customize how many days before the due date you want to submit the payment. Additionally, you can set up notifications so that you get an email letting you know it’s been paid, for extra peace of mind.

Flaws but not dealbreakers

If there’s a chance you might make a late payment, proceed at your own risk. According to the card’s terms and conditions, you may be charged a late-payment fee (up to $39), and you could incur a high penalty APR (a higher interest rate than usual on your existing balance) of up to 29.99%, based on your creditworthiness.

Confusingly, both a Bank of America customer support representative and BoA spokesperson Betty Riess independently confirmed with Wirecutter that the bank currently doesn’t impose a penalty APR on this card if you pay late.

Additionally, as with our other picks, a late payment with this card still means you incur a late fee (up to $39), and it will be reported to the credit bureaus as a late payment, which can hurt your credit score.

Although we like the Bank of America Cash Rewards card for rewards, odds are, you’ll quickly hit a cap on your bonus earnings. The rewards rate of 3% in one bonus category, plus 2% at grocery stores and wholesale clubs, is limited to just the first $2,500 in combined purchases each quarter (you earn just 1% after that).

And like the other two picks in this guide, the Bank of America Cash Rewards Credit Card charges a foreign-transaction fee, so don’t use this to finance your international vacation.

0% intro APR offers versus balance transfers: What’s the difference?

Although a 0% purchase APR and a balance transfer are features that you often find offered on the same credit card, they aren’t the same thing.

Balance-transfer cards allow you to move your current credit card debt from one (or more) cards to a credit card with a lower APR, potentially saving you money on interest. They’re a good bet if you want help repaying an existing IOU while minimizing interest and fees.

The best balance-transfer cards don’t charge a fee, let you put off paying your debt until 2021, and offer rewards so you can keep them in your wallet.

Introductory purchase APR offers, which we’re discussing in this guide, apply only to new purchases you make on that credit card.

What’s in it for the banks?

“Zero-percent APR offers are a marketing tactic, and the banks are betting against you,” said Wendy De La Rosa, co-founder of Common Cents Lab and behavioral scientist at Stanford University, in an interview. “They lure you in because in the long run, you’re a profitable customer.”

Here are a couple of ways banks make money on 0% offers:

You don’t pay your balance in full by the end of the introductory period and wind up paying a high purchase APR on the remaining balance.

You make a late payment. In this situation, not only are you likely subject to a late fee (which can be as much as $38), but some banks may also impose a steep penalty interest rate on your balance. Both of our picks give you some leeway with late payments (such as waiving your first late-payment fee), but you should avoid making a late payment whenever possible.

You got a 0% purchase APR offer—now what?

A 0% purchase APR offer can save you money and give you financial wiggle room if you use it correctly.

But if you use it incorrectly, the interest charges you’ll incur on balances you don’t pay in full at the end of the promo period can quickly cancel out any money you save.

Here are some tips for applying for and managing a 0% APR card:

1. Apply for your card as soon as possible.

Although some cards, including our pick, the Chase Freedom Unlimited, provide online approvals in as little as 60 seconds to some applicants, it can take up to 30 days for you to learn whether you’ve been approved, particularly in situations where accounts are flagged for fraud.

From there, most cards can take a few days to land in your mailbox (a Chase spokesperson said the Chase Freedom Unlimited takes five to 10 business days to arrive).

If you’re planning to use your card to pay for something up front, such as a vacation or electronics, allow enough time to get approved for the card and receive it before the day you wish to make the purchase (maybe a month or so to be on the safe side).

2. If possible, plan to pay off your debt in less time than the offer period.

If your offer period is 18 billing cycles, for example, don’t simply divide your purchase by 18 and pay it off in those installments. De La Rosa told us it’s a wise move to plan for paying it off more quickly than that, so you can account for other, unexpected charges that may come up in the meantime. If any extra cash becomes available to you, such as a tax refund or (if you’re paid biweekly) the additional paycheck in the two months of the year you get three checks, funnel that toward your debt.

3. Make a budget and stick to it.

4. Make your intended purchase (or set of purchases) on your card—and then cut up your card.

View your card as a vehicle for financing a specific purchase (a new transmission for your car) or set of purchases (moving expenses such as shipping costs, gas, or new furniture). Don’t be tempted to add on “wants” such as new clothes just because you have that 0% offer available to you. Instead, after making your intended purchases, cut up your card.

De La Rosa told us that doing so can help you prevent your future self from continuing to spend. “If people still continue to have a credit card to make purchases with no interest, then they’re more likely to keep spending on that credit card,” she said.

5. Pay off your debt in regular installments rather than waiting until the end of the intro period.

Consider setting up automatic payments to make it as easy as possible to chip away at that debt. Just remember to have enough in the account when the auto-payment date rolls around each month.

6. Set up calendar reminders to check on your debt.

If you have a card with a long 0% interest period such as the BankAmericard Credit Card and you’ve set up autopay, you could easily forget about your debt. To ensure you’re on track to pay it off before interest kicks in, De La Rosa recommends setting up calendar reminders every few months, coupled with a “big reminder” three weeks before the promo period expires.

How a 0% intro APR offer affects your credit score

Taking advantage of a 0% purchase APR offer may seem like a no-brainer—but there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Even if you pay your debt before any interest kicks in, you could take a hit elsewhere: your credit score.

As part of your credit card application, the issuer will review your credit. This step is known as a hard inquiry, and it may lightly ding your credit scores (the number varies but is typically about a five- to 10-point drop). Although hard inquiries remain on your credit report for two years, they usually affect your credit scores for only a few months.

The other factor to consider that may hurt your credit is the potential change to your credit utilization ratio.

Your credit utilization ratio is the total of how much you currently owe across all of your cards divided by the total amount of your credit limit. Experts recommend that you owe no more than 30% of your total credit limit or of an individual card’s limit. High utilization can indicate to lenders or creditors that you're having trouble managing your finances.

Say you have a $10,000 credit limit on your new card, but you’re using it to pay for an international trip costing $6,502 (as we mention above, that’s the average cost according to ValuePenguin’s analysis of 2013 Consumer Expenditure Survey data). Your utilization, not accounting for other credit lines you may have, is about 65%:

(6,502 ÷ 10,000) × 100 = 65.02

But it’s not necessarily a permanent problem. Assuming you pay down your debt every month and all else remains equal, your credit utilization ratio may go down, which can help your credit score.

All of the cards we analyzed

ABOC Platinum Rewards Card

American Express Cash Magnet™

Amex EveryDay® Credit Card

Blue Cash Everyday® from American Express

BankAmericard® Credit Card from Bank of America

Bank of America® Cash Rewards Credit Card

BB&T Bright®

BB&T Spectrum Cash Rewards

BBVA Compass ClearPoints Credit Card

BECU Cash Back Visa®

BECU Visa

BMO Harris Bank Platinum Rewards Mastercard®

BMO Harris Bank Premium Rewards Mastercard®

Capital One Quicksilver® Cash Rewards

Capital One® SavorOne℠ Rewards

Chase Freedom®

Chase Freedom Unlimited®

Chase Slate®

Citi® Diamond Preferred®

Citi Simplicity® Card

CorTrust Bank Coral Platinum Visa Credit Card

Discover it® Cash Back

Discover it® Chrome

Fifth Third Bank Truly Simple® Credit Card

Gesa Credit Union Diamond Cash Back

Gesa Visa® Platinum

HSBC Gold Mastercard®

Johnson Bank Visa® Platinum

Johnson Bank Visa® Signature Real Rewards

Navy Federal Credit Union Cash Rewards

Navy Federal Credit Union Platinum

Oregon Community Credit Union NICE PERKS® Visa® Credit Card

Oregon Community Credit Union NICE® Platinum Visa® Credit Card

PNC Core Visa Credit Card

RBC Bank Visa Signature Rewards

RBC Bank Visa Signature Rewards Plus

State Farm® Rewards Visa® Credit Card

Suntrust Cash Rewards

Synovus Bank Rewards Visa®

Synovus Cash Rewards Visa®

Synovus Classic Visa®

U.S. Bank Visa® Platinum Card

Wells Fargo Cash Wise Visa®

Wells Fargo Platinum Visa®

Wells Fargo Propel® Card

Wells Fargo Rewards®

Wells Fargo Visa® Signature

WSECU Low Rate

WSECU Platinum Rewards

Zions Bank® AmaZing Cash®

Zions Bank® AmaZing Rate®

Zions Bank® AmaZing Rewards®

Editorial note: Opinions expressed here are Wirecutter’s alone and have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any third party.